Former Wisconsin women’s hockey standouts Brianna Decker, Meghan Duggan, Hilary Knight and Alex Rigsby were named to the Team USA roster for the 2018 Winter Olympics on Monday.

Duggan and Knight will make their third appearance at the Olympics in February. Duggan captained the U.S. squad in 2014. Decker made her second Olympic team after playing in the 2014 games while Rigsby will make her Olympic debut this year in PyeongChang, South Korea.

The quartet will join the five Badgers, Emily Clark, Ann-Renee Desbiens, Meaghan Mikkelson, Sarah Nurse and Blayre Turnbull, selected on Dec. 22 to the Canadian Olympic team in PyeongChang.

The U.S. opens play at the 2018 Winter Olympics on Feb. 11 with a 1:40 a.m. CT game against Finland.

U.S. Men

For the first time since 1972, there are no Badger men’s hockey players on the U.S. Olympic team. However, the coaching staff has three.

Badger men’s coach Tony Granato will serve as the Head Coach of the U.S. team. Former Badger defensive great Chris Chelios will serve as an assistant coach and another former Badger, Jim Johannson is Team USA’s general manager.

Wisconsin senior hockey standout Sarah Nurse was named the WCHA’s Offensive Player of the Week for the fourth time in her career.

Nurse tallied the game-winning assist in Wisconsin’s 2-1 win over North Dakota in Saturday’s WCHA Final Face-Off semifinal before recording a goal and two assists in Sunday’s 4-1 victory over Minnesota Duluth to help the Badgers clinch their third straight WCHA Final Face-Off championship.

Nurse (Hamilton, Ontario) is tied for the team lead in goals with 24 and is second in points with 52.

Nurse and the top-ranked Badgers will host Robert Morris at LaBahn Arena on Saturday afternoon in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals. The 2 p.m. faceoff is sold-out.

After a seven-point weekend that included a hat trick, Wisconsin women’s hockey senior Sarah Nurse was named the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week.

It marks the third time this year that Nurse, an alternate captain, has received accolades from the WCHA as she was named the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 25 and Dec. 6, 2016.

Nurse tallied three points thanks to a goal and two assists in Wisconsin’s 7-0 win against Minnesota State before recording a hat trick along with an assists in the Badgers 6-0 win on Saturday. [Read more…]

The top-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team dropped their series opener against second-ranked Minnesota 2-0 on Saturday. The Badgers rebounded Sunday with a 8-2 rout over the Gophers before a sold out LaBahn Arena.

Senior forward Sarah Nurse tallied her second hat trick of the season for the Badgers (15-2-1, 11-2-1-1 WCHA). Nurse scored twice in the opening period.

Junior Baylee Wellhausen recorded her third multi-goal game of the season with a pair of goals.

Senior Ann-Renee Desbiens earned her 12th win of the season, stopping 23 of the 25 shots she faced.

The Gophers (14-2-2, 12-2-2-2) scored both of their goals in the first period and would be shutout for the rest of the afternoon.

Wisconsin hits the road next weekend, traveling to Ohio State to wrap up the 2016 calendar year.

Wisconsin Badger women’s hockey goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens is no stranger to rewriting the NCAA record books as she broke the NCAA single-season record for shutouts, goals-against average and save percentage last year.

Desbiens made more NCAA history on Sunday, breaking the NCAA career shutout record with her 44th as the top-ranked Badgers topped Bemidji State, 6-0, at LaBahn Arena.

“I’m definitely happy about it,” Desbiens said. “I’ll stop getting questions about it now that I have it, maybe not. But it’s fun to have especially after this week, which was a little harder. It’s a victory mentally, I would say. It’s nice to be able to do that as a team to show how consistent we’ve been.” [Read more…]

Emily Clark scored twice and Ann-Renee Desbiens’ posted her 14th shutout of the season to lead the second-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team to their 20th-consecutive home win on Sunday, topping St. Cloud State, 3-0, at LaBahn Arena.

Desbiens tied the school record for shutouts in a season, making 13 saves to earn her 24th win of the season for the Badgers (21-1-1, 20-1-1-1 WCHA).

The La Malbaie, Quebec, native now has 31 career shutouts to pass former UW netminder Alex Ribsby and former New Hampshire goaltender Melissa Bourdon for third on the NCAA all-time list. [Read more…]

After a four-point weekend at home against Minnesota-Duluth last weekend, Wisconsin women’s hockey standout Sarah Nurse has been named the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week.

Nurse earned her first weekly accolade of her career after scoring three goals and an assist during the team’s sweep of Minnesota-Duluth.

Nurse leads all Badgers and is tied for third nationally with four game-winning goals. She ranks second on the team with 24 points from 15 goals and nine assists, and ranks seventh in the nation for goals per game, averaging 0.83 goals per contest.

The second-ranked Badgers travel to face 6th-ranked Bemidji State. Both Friday and Saturday’s games at the Sanford Center are set for 2 p.m. starts.